A brand new crypto litigation tracker from commercial law practice Morrison Cohen LLP shows details in excess of 300 active and settled proceedings since 2013.
Morrison Cohen is really a New You are able to-based firm that suits large banking institutions, entrepreneurs and early-growth stage companies, and focuses on capital markets, business litigation, property and personal bankruptcy to mention a couple of. The organization also offers a cryptocurrency litigation team.
The Morrison Cohen Cryptocurrency Litigation Tracker was printed on May. 3, and possesses any situation development associated with the U.S. Registration (SEC), Commodity Futures Buying and selling Commission (CFTC), the Department of Justice (DOJ) and class action lawsuit/private litigation.
The firm mentioned that it’ll regularly update the tracker “ to incorporate the important thing rulings during these litigations,” and in addition it contains a number of “articles, webinars, and podcasts” and regulatory crypto bulletins from various government departments.
Based on the tracker — that is basically a extended pdf document — there has been roughly 17 crypto cases which were either introduced prior to the court or resolved in 2022 to date.
The SEC, CFTC and DOJ combined take into account seven of individuals, with a few much talked about cases to be the SEC v. the Barksdale brothers and sisters, who allegedly conducted a dishonest initial gold coin offering (ICO) worth $124 million, and also the SEC v. digital asset platform BlockFi, who decided to pay a $100 million penalty for neglecting to register its crypto lending product.
The most known of however, may be the ongoing DOJ v.Ilya Lichtenstein and Louise Morgan situation. The husband-wife duo are billed by having an alleged conspiracy to launder funds concerning the 119,756 Bitcoin (BTC) Bitfinex hack in 2016. DOJ special agents could seize 94,000 BTC at about the time of arrests in Feb.
Could also be plenty more within the works this season, thinking about the SEC announced now that it’ll be upping the headcount of their enforcement-focused “Crypto Assets & Cyber Unit” to 50 dedicated positions.
Today we announced that we’re bolstering the system accountable for protecting investors in crypto markets & from cyber-related threats. The recently renamed Crypto Assets & Cyber Unit within the Division of Enforcement will grow to 50 dedicated positions.
— U.S. Registration (@SECGov) May 3, 2022
Related: Has New You are able to Condition gone down the wrong path in the quest for crypto fraud?
Nearly all action continues to be in the class action lawsuit/private arena however, with SafeMoon attracting probably the most attention following the team was slapped having a class-action suit over an alleged pump and dump plan.
The class action lawsuit claims the work employed numerous celebrities to draw investors with allegedly misleading information, with musicians for example Nick Carter, Soulja Boy, Lil Yachty and YouTubers Mike Paul and Ben Phillips all stated to possess promoted the BNB Chain-based token.
A distinctive situation that appears to possess mostly traveled individually distinct may be the Halston Thayer v. Matt Furie, Chain/Saw LL, and PegzDAO from March.
The trio — including Furie, the initial creator from the beloved Pepe the Frog meme — is charged with fraudulent inducement, after allegedly selling a 1-of-one NFT that tanked in value following the same NFT drop which was released free of charge.
“Plaintiff alleges that defendants fraudulently misrepresented the need for a Pepe the Frog NFT. Complaintant compensated $537,084 for any Pepe the Frog NFT produced by Furie and offered through PegzDAO. A couple of days following the purchase, PegzDAO released 46 identical NFTs free of charge, which allegedly reduced the need for Plaintiff’s NFT,“ Morrison Cohen authored.
